It all started with a woman named Anna Jarvis in 1907 as a way to remember her deceased mother. Just two years later and Jarvis was (unsuccessfully) campaigning to shut Mother’s Day down and stop it from happening again. Why the sudden about face?

Jarvis hated how commercialised the day had become in such a short time. That companies seized the opportunity to increase sales of flowers and greeting cards etc. For Jarvis, the true meaning of Mother’s Day, a day where love and appreciation was shown to the women who raised us, was replaced by a cheap cash grab.

Love it or hate it, Mother’s Day isn’t going anywhere. But the reason I think it’s complicated is not just because of ridiculously sappy greeting cards.

As a church, we want to affirm the role of mothers in our community. Mothers have been given a special role by God to love and nurture children. Mothers give us life and they keep us alive. As a father, I am very thankful for the blessing my wife has been to me and to my boys.

But not all women in our community are mothers. This may be their choice. Or it may be because their wants and desires to be a parent have not matched up with God’s plans for this world. A day celebrating motherhood can be difficult when you are not a mother. Or if you are a mother and your family life is filled with strife and conflict. Celebrating motherhood may be the last thing in the world that you want to do.

The reality is that things are not right in this world. The good world that God created, with everything in order and everyone in good relationship with each other has gone. This is the world we live in, where our lives are not what we want them to be. We long for something better. We long for Jesus to return and make things right. That day is coming. Until then, we wait.

For all our mothers today, we pray that you are looked after. That your family shows you how much they need you and love you. For our women who are not mothers, we pray that you will be looked after. That as a church we can show you how much we need you and love you. A church is not a random collection of strangers, but a family brought together by God to love and encourage each other as we wait for Jesus’ return.

Today, let’s be thankful for all the women in our church family and show them our love and appreciation.

]]>https://joelamoroney.com/2018/05/13/mothers-day-2018/feed/1joelamoroneyHow To Read the Bible Bookmarkshttps://joelamoroney.com/2015/12/29/how-to-read-the-bible-bookmarks/
https://joelamoroney.com/2015/12/29/how-to-read-the-bible-bookmarks/#commentsTue, 29 Dec 2015 03:48:38 +0000http://joelamoroney.com/?p=2748At our church, we’re encouraging everyone to pick up their Bibles and read a small passage of Scripture each day. To help with this, we’re doing two things. Firstly, in the service sheet each week is a checklist with 5 Bible passages, one for each weekday. For example, in the first week of 2016 we’ll be starting with the book of Acts: Monday – Acts 1:1-11, Tuesday – Acts 1:12-26, Wednesday – Acts 2:1-13, Thursday – Acts 2:14-42, Friday – Acts 2:43-47.

Secondly, we’ve produced these bookmarks for our congregations to help them to find the passage and to read the passage. Something like this may be helpful for you or for your ministry.

]]>https://joelamoroney.com/2015/12/29/how-to-read-the-bible-bookmarks/feed/1joelamoroney12Will The Real Jesus Please Stand Up?https://joelamoroney.com/2015/12/18/will-the-real-jesus-please-stand-up/
Thu, 17 Dec 2015 23:00:08 +0000http://joelamoroney.com/?p=2649Next week, people all over the world are going to be celebrating the birthday of a man who lived 2000 years ago. His name is Jesus. You might have heard of him. He’s kind of a big deal. We know so much about Jesus, but do we know what he looked like?

Yes and no.

This photo has been doing the rounds for a few years now. And we’ve come to that point in the news cycle where it’s time for this “recreation” of the face of Jesus to spend 15 minutes in the spotlight.

Shock! Horror! Jesus is not a blue eyed, blonde haired, white guy who has walked straight out of a shampoo commercial! How can the Christian faith recover from this bombshell?

The answer is: quite easily. Two things worth mentioning:

1) This is not actually a picture of Jesus. It’s a forensic reconstruction of what a Jewish man in 1st century Israel would look like. So while it tells us that Jesus probably didn’t look like Chris Hemsworth, we shouldn’t rush to make it Jesus’ Facebook profile picture.

2) It does a good job of helping us get rid of the image of Jesus as being some handsome hair care model with a perpetual halo above his head. The Bible tells us that Jesus was an ordinary man. There was nothing spectacular about how he looked. And unless you’re a middle eastern Jewish man, he probably didn’t look just like you. In fact, if the image of Jesus in your head is so holy that he has virtually no connection to the human race, you’re missing out on the beauty of the incarnation. Jesus is fully God AND fully man.

The reason we celebrate Christmas is because God became human and walked among us. He didn’t put on a human shaped suit and pretend to be one of us. He didn’t scoop the brain out of a guy and and turn his head into a little God nest. God became man in every way, while retaining his full nature as God of all creation. This is a truth that never stops amazing me, and I’m grateful that this “photo” of Jesus reminds me of that.

]]>joelamoroneyJesus eyesac0The Youth Ministry Toolboxhttps://joelamoroney.com/2015/12/15/the-youth-ministry-toolbox/
Mon, 14 Dec 2015 23:00:28 +0000http://joelamoroney.com/?p=2563Most days of the year, the best way to describe my office would be organised chaos. There’s stuff everywhere – mostly dumped there at the end of a long night of youth group or as I’m rushing from one event to the next. In those rare moments of quiet – when programs are wrapping up for the year and I feel like I can stop and take a breath, I get on top of the job of cleaning and organising my office. And in even rarer moments, I start thinking of how I can do the organising thing even better.

And that’s when I get ideas like the Youth Ministry Toolbox.

Here’s the problem – on a Friday night I grab what I need for the night from my office, juggling multiple items, and take it all down to the hall. Then I meet with my leaders and work out what we need to make the program work for the night. Then it’s another trip up to the office to scrounge around for the things we need. So, I’m thinking – how can I streamline this process? How can I minimise the number of trips and cut down on the awkward juggling?

One trip to Bunnings and I had my answer.

The toolbox itself cost me about $30. I like it because it is sturdy and covered in easy to access pockets. Here are some of the things I’ve already loaded it up with:

Permission notes – we do online registration, so these handouts are for new families to point them to the online form to fill out

Gospels to give away – we have Bibles in the hall to use on the night, so these are for giving to curious newcomers

Generosity box – this year I’ve upgraded from a cardboard box to a small coin safe. Each week we get our youth to give generously to a project that seeks to proclaim Jesus to the world. We pass around the box and those who have brought money can put it in the box without everyone seeing what they’ve given.

Incident book – one of those things that is good to have, but you hope you never need. Any injuries or safe ministry concerns get recorded in the book (which is only accessible to the relevant leaders).

Things that might be useful for games and activities:

Coloured pencils

Pencil sharpener

Pens

Sharpies

Scissors

Sticky tape

Playing cards

Rubber bands

Dice

Bulldog clips

Blutac

Masking tape

Gaffe tape

String

Whiteboard markers

I’m sure I’ll think of more things to add to the toolkit as the year goes on. What would you add to the kit? What would be in your youth ministry toolkit?

]]>joelamoroney2015-12-11 16.06.222015-12-11 16.09.44Kickstarter: Glo Biblehttps://joelamoroney.com/2015/12/14/kickstarter-glo-bible/
Sun, 13 Dec 2015 23:00:55 +0000http://joelamoroney.com/?p=2544From the day I got my first smart phone, Glo Bible has been one of my favourite apps. Not only does it have a full text version of the Bible (which alone makes it a worthwhile app) but it’s chock full of extras like commentaries, maps, videos and dictionary articles. On top of that, the apps visual interface is a joy for a visual learner like myself. If you have an iOS device, Glo Bible is a must have app.

At least until the new version comes along early next year. The team behind Glo Bible are currently running a Kickstarter to raise funds to produce an even better app. I’m really excited about the new app and I’m really keen to check it out. I’ve signed on for the Glo Premium reward, which will give me the premium version of the app at a discount rate ($25 reduced from $40). Have a look at the campaign video and consider supporting this great project.